PRAYERS TO GOD THE FATHER
God is our Father, to whom all prayer is directed. We were made to know, love, and serve him. Every gift comes from him as its source and returns to him as its final end. We praise and adore him for all the gifts of creation but especially for the gift of his only Son, by whom we are redeemed.
Prayers of Thanksgiving
A General Thanksgiving
Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise. To you be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus from generation to generation evermore.
Almighty God of all mercies, Father,
we, your unworthy servants,
give you most humble and hearty thanks
for all your goodness and loving kindness
to us and to all men.
We bless you for our creation, our preservation,
and all the blessings of this life.
But above all we thank you for your infinite love
in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ,
for the means of grace and the hope of glory.
And, we pray, give us a due sense of all your mercies,
that our hearts may be truly thankful
and that we may declare your praise
not only with our lips but in our lives,
by giving ourselves to your service
and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit,
be all honor and glory world without end.
Give Thanks to the Lord
O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures for ever.
O give thanks to the God of gods,
for his mercy endures for ever.
O give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his mercy endures for ever;
to him who alone does great wonders,
for his mercy endures for ever;
to him who by understanding made the heavens,
for his mercy endures for ever;
to him who spread out the earth upon the waters,
for his mercy endures for ever;
to him who made the great lights,
for his mercy endures for ever;
the sun to rule over the day,
for his mercy endures for ever;
the moon and stars to rule over the night,
for his mercy endures for ever;
…
He…gives food to all flesh,
for his mercy endures for ever
O give thanks to the God of heaven,
for his mercy endures for ever.
Psalm 136:1–9, 25–26
Thanksgiving for Creation
Thanks be to God for the light and the darkness;
Thanks be to God for the hail and the snow;
Thanks be to God for shower and sunshine;
Thanks be to God for all things that grow;
Thanks be to God for lightning and tempests;
Thanks be to God for weal and woe;
Thanks be to God for his own great goodness;
Thanks be to God for what is, is so;
Thanks be to God when the harvest is plenty;
Thanks be to God when the barn is low;
Thanks be to God when our pockets are empty;
Thanks be to God when again they o’erflow.
Thanksgiving for Salvation
He is the image of the unseen God
and the first-born of all creation,
for in him were created
all things in heaven and on earth:
everything visible and everything invisible,
Thrones, Dominations, Sovereignties, Powers—
all things were created through him and for him.
Before anything was created, he existed,
and he holds all things in unity.
Now the Church is his body,
he is its head.
As he is the Beginning,
he was first to be born from the dead,
so that he should be first in every way;
because God wanted all perfection
to be found in him
and all things to be reconciled through him
and for him,
everything in heaven and everything on earth,
when he made peace
by his death on the cross.
Colossians 1:15–20
Thanksgiving for the Gift of Faith
My God, from my heart I thank you for the many blessings you have given me. I thank you for having created and baptized me, for having placed me in your holy Catholic Church, and for having given me so many graces and mercies through the merits of Jesus Christ. I thank your Son Jesus for having died upon the cross that I might receive pardon for my sins and obtain my eternal salvation. I thank you for all your other mercies you have given me through Jesus Christ, Our Lord.
Prayers of Praise
How Majestic Is Your Name
O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You whose glory above the heavens is chanted
by the mouth of babes and infants,
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars which you have established;
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him little less than the angels,
and you have crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the sea.
O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psalm 8
Praise for All Creation
I offer thee
Every flower that ever grew,
Every bird that ever flew,
Every wind that ever blew.
Good God!
Every thunder rolling,
Every church bell tolling,
Every leaf and sod.
Laudamus Te!
I offer thee
Every wave that ever moved,
Every heart that ever loved,
Thee, thy Father’s well-beloved.
Dear Lord!
Every river dashing,
Every lightning flashing,
Like an angel’s sword.
Benedicimus Te!
I offer thee
Every cloud that ever swept
O’er the skies, and broke and wept
In rain, and with the flowerets slept.
My King!
Every communicant praying,
Every angel staying
Before thy throne to sing.
Adoramus Te!
I offer thee
Every flake of virgin snow,
Every spring of earth below,
Every human joy and woe.
My love!
O Lord! And all thy glorious
Self o’er death victorious,
Throned in heaven above.
Glorificamus Te!
Ancient Irish Prayer
Pied Beauty
Glory be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pierced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
For the Beauty of the Earth
For the beauty of the earth,
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth,
Over and around us lies:
Lord of all to Thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.
For the wonder of each hour
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale and tree and flow’r,
Sun and moon and stars of light:
Lord of all to Thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.
For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth and friends above,
For all gentle thoughts and mild:
Lord of all to Thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.
For Thy Church that evermore
Lifteth holy hands above,
Offering up on every shore
Her pure sacrifice of love
Lord of all to Thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.
William C. Dix
Hymn of Praise
Most high Lord,
Yours are the praises,
The glory and the honors,
And to you alone must be accorded
All graciousness; and no man there is
Who is worthy to name you.
Be praised, O God, and be exalted,
My Lord of all creatures,
And in especial of the most high Sun,
Which is your creature, O Lord, that makes clear
The day and illumines it,
Whence by its fairness and its splendor
It is become your face;
And of the white moon (be praised, O Lord)
And of the wandering stars,
Created by you in the heaven
So brilliant and so fair.
Praised be my Lord, by the flame
Whereby night grows illumined
In the midst of its darkness,
For it is...